Beginnings

By way of introduction, my name is Gerard Cataldo, I'm in the book business, rare book dealer, small publisher, general bibliophile of sorts. So I will be writing primarily about those things, but I'll be rambling about other interests from time to time as well, so bear with me, if you want to.

Our bookshop is a small antiquarian shop, the Chestertown Old Book Co., in Chestertown, Maryland, on the 'Eastern Shore'. We deal in very rare and not-so-rare books. Not exactly something for everyone, but a nice selection nonetheless. Recently we formed a small press, Chester River Press, specializing in fine, limited edition letterpress books. Our first publishing project was a letterpress limited edition of The Chesapeake Voyages of Capt. John Smith. We also publish other types of books of the 'offset' printing variety, but I'll get into that later. Of course the rare and used book business today is far from what it used to be many years ago. We've been in the so called 'open shop' business for just a few years, but as you can find out with a little research, there are significantly fewer used book shops in existence today than, say, 20 or 30 years ago. There are many reasons for that and I'm sure you are well aware of them. Suffice it to say that we were taking a chance opening the shop in the times we find ourselves in.

But it's very nice to be surrounded by fine literature, history, etc. some in exquisite old bindings, many very rare, most very intriguing. They seem to take on a life of their own. We treat them kindly, no stacks of dusty old books in nooks and crannies, all arranged fairly neatly and cared for, so we like to think we have 'happy books'. If you've been in some used bookstores that are like old catacombs full of volumes leaning on volumes, then you will understand the difference. Of course I've found some wonderful 'gems' in those caverns, but I really think the books that live there, year after year, can't be very happy. I like happy books.

We have some interesting publishing projects underway, most notably our letterpress limited illustrated edition of Conrad's Heart of Darkness. We are also planning a two volume Iliad and Odyssey, limited and illustrated, as well as some 'reprints' of offset books. I'll take some time to explain our publishing ventures, past and present, in a future entry.

I want to say that without my two partners, William Frank and James Dissette, none of these things would be happening. Bill is a true classical scholar, who understands and devours the rare texts we deal with, and Jim is an extremely gifted letterpress book designer and printer, and a published poet in his own right. We are all very fortunate to have a wonderful affiliation with Chad Pastotnik of Deep Wood Press in Mancelona, Michigan, who has worked with us on our letterpress books, and with Kathleen Jones, editor extraordinaire, who has worked tirelessly on our projects.